Hawks, Crusaders Open Spring Season with Victories

Spring has finally arrived and with it the opening of baseball, softball, lacrosse, track, boys tennis and volleyball seasons. And after a long winter, each of the River Dell and Bergen Catholic student-athletes ran to early season victories to open their respective schedules.

River Dell

River Dell boys lacrosse returns its top scorers with Steve Luca and Kevin Barry and standout goalie Ben Sagerman and have already raced to the top of the leaderboard with a 14-4 upset over Old Tappan and ecaped with a 5-4 victory over St. Joseph Regional.

Monclair-bound Emily Wong and the girls lacrosse team opened their season with a 10-7 win over Wayne Hills and then a 12-3 victory against neighboring Paramus.

Baseball split their first two games with a 4-3 win over rival Ramsey with Brandon Martinez’s RBI double along the way. The Hawks then fell to Mahwah, 13-5, in six innings.

Softball's rivarly with Ramsey was alive and well on opening day and the Lady Hawks, led by junior pitcher Cathy Antonelli, walked away with a 4-2 win as Antonelli, Lindsey Clark and Jordyn Rocca all had RBI hits. River Dell then fell to Mahwah 8-7 as the Lady T-Birds edged ahead with a final inning three run game.

Scott Kim, bound for Siena College and the rest of the golf team stroked their way to a 3-1 record after defeating Mahwah (179-183), Hackensack (167-201) and Bergen Tech (167-181). The Hawks lone loss came by rival Ramsey (181-173).

Tennis has fallen behind to start the season with back-to-back losses to Mahwah (5-0) and Indian Hills (4-1) after opening the month with a 3-2 win against Ramsey. Facing the Rams, Zack Wynne defeated Jacob Kramer, 7-5, 6-1 in first singles, Patrick Thane defeated Alex Kwon, 6-0, 6-2 in second singles, and Ben Shapiro defeated Brian Kurnentz 6-2, 6-0 in third singles. Wynne stayed ahead of Indian Hills' Mike McGuire, 7-6 (7-1) 6-3 for the lone win.

Boys and girls track both opened the season with a victory over Westwood as the boys won 108-32 and the girls earned a 87-51 win.

Bergen Catholic

The Crusaders opened their lacrosse season with huge wins over Northern Highlands (12-6) and then beat Ridge for the first time in program history, 13-10.

Bergen Catholic powered past the Highlanders as sophomore Mike Reilly tied a single game points record by tallying 9 total points (3 goals, 6 assists) on the day. The team then struck quickly against the Red Devils with an early lead and then never relinquished control behind senior Tucker James' four goals.

Under new head coach Mark DeMenna, the Crusaders have already stamped their mark on the baseball diamond as BC's bats have deafened their opponents. The Crusaders decimated DePaul 11-2, as senior catcher Zach Cerbo led off the game with a solo home run and finished with four hits, three runs scored, and two RBI. He also threw out two base runners attempting to steal. Cerbo and senior second baseman Joe Esposito then led the way as Bergen downed Morristown 18-9 in six innings.

Golf has shot its way out to a 4-0 season record with wins over St. Joseph Regional (154-198), Glen Rock (146-191), DePaul (142-193) and Paramus Catholic (159-185). During the season opener, Matt Love and George Cultraro each set individual course records at Upper Montclair Country Club by each shooting a 38 for the Crusaders.

Senior setter/outside hitter Kirk Nouhan and se­nior opposite hitter Charles Fraser have picked up where they left off last season on the volleyball court by defeating Hackensack (26-24, 25-22) before falling to St. Joseph Metuchen (16-25, 10-25) and Bloomfield (19-25, 19-25).

Bergen Catholic began their track season in dominant fashion, winning every event on the day, on their way to a 112-28 divisional victory against St. Joseph Regional. Kyle Queiro (Long jump, triple jump, high jumps), Kyle Ellerson (100 meter and 200 meter dash), De'Shaun Morris (110 HH and Javelin), and Jack Lippin (Shot Put and Discuss) each won multiple events for the Crusaders.

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